Configuring TrueType and OpenType support

The TrueType and OpenType fonts that are supported must be Unicode-enabled, and they are used for processing files in a Unicode environment. For ASCII text data (a non-Unicode environment), do not use TrueType/OpenType fonts. Whereas FOCA fonts are referenced in AFP with coded font names, Global Resource Identifiers (GRIDs), or code page and font character set name pairs, TrueType and OpenType fonts are always referenced by MDR structured fields using a name that is reflected in the actual font file: the full font name. This means that the actual font data is not needed in this referencing stage, just the full font names. At the printing stage, the font data is needed.

PSF uses two methods to resolve the font references:

  1. Inline within the resource group of the AFP file. This means the font is embedded into the AFP.
  2. Through the Resource Access Table (RAT).

The Resource Access Table is created using AFP Font Installer. It maps each Full Font Name to a file name within the current directory. When the RAT is used, each directory that contains TrueType and OpenType fonts should contain its own RAT file.

Enabling support for TrueType/OpenType fonts when RAT is installed

If you have installed the RAT, the AFP files will only reference the fonts using MDR structured fields. When AFP is submitted to PSF for printing, the fonts are resolved through the RAT. This situation is supported for both OTF and ABAP types of files.

To transform and print OTF files in Unicode environment using TrueType/OpenType fonts:

  1. Open the fonts.tab.unicode.truetype file using a text editor.
  2. Use the FullFontName column to map the OTF fonts to the desired TrueType/OpenType fonts.